With the Beloved in your Heart, it is Leela to engage with all and sundry || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Acharya Prashant

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With the Beloved in your Heart, it is Leela to engage with all and sundry || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Speaker: Bhagyashree has enquired about Leela. What is Leela?

Yes, what is Leela? Let’s come up. What is Leela?

Listener 1: What all is going on all around.

Listener 2: The play.

Listener 3: Game of Maya with Truth.

Listener 4: When you are in the game it remains a game. But you know you are just a player and you know exactly that it is not reality.

Listener 5: There is nothing to be afraid of.

Listener 6: Playing the game and not taking it seriously.

Speaker: You have gone to a theatre with your beloved. And on the screen there are many beautiful men and women. Of course, they are there to entertain you, probably even to deliver a message. But you walked into the theatre with your beloved before the movie had begun. And you will walk out of the theatre after the movie is over. And what do you have on the screen? Many beautiful women, and lots of money and entertainment, and attractions and repulsions, and so much else. In a 2 hours movie, an entire world is presented to you. But do you jump into the screen and marry one of those women? Do you?

Listeners: No. (In unison)

Speaker: You know your beloved is with you, right next to you. Soon the movie would be over. And she would remain with you. The movie would be over. The movie is after all just a movie. And the women on the screen might actually look more fascinating than the woman sitting next to you.

But I am again asking you, do you get so fascinated that you jump inside the screen and try to pick one of them? You well know what the screen is.

Next question, because you know it’s merely a screen, do you become so disappointed that you rush out of the theatre? Or start saying that, “These people are out to cheat me, deceive me. How can I continue sitting here?”

You well know that it is all fake, yet you continue sitting there. It maybe fake but it is still alright. Still alright! You see a lot of money there. The movie has a billionaire who likes to splash money. But do you forget the wallet in your pocket? Would you rather go for the notes you see on the screen? Or do you go and complain to the RBI that, “I just saw a lot of fake currencies”? And it is fake currency, is it not? It appears but it is not. And that is fakeness. Will that currency help you buy even a piece of bread?

What is Leela? Leela is when the Beloved is sitting next to you. Then whatever is happening on the screen cannot become too meaningful for you.

What if your beloved leaves the theatre? Would you continue watching the movie? I am assuming it’s a loving relationship. Sometimes it is all the more pleasurable if she leaves. (Smiles)

What if she leaves the theatre? What is more important to you – being with her or being with the movie?

Remember, you came into the theatre with her. She was there even before the movie was there, and she will continue to be there even after the movie is long gone. Movies begin and finish. The beloved is the one who is there before the beginning and the beloved is the one who is there after the ending. So, the movie can never be more important that the beloved. And if the beloved decides to walk out of the theatre, what will you do? You will walk out along with her.

“*Well, the movie was meaningful only because and only till you were sitting next to me. It is not the movie that matters. It is your company that matters.*” This is Leela.

“The movie is incidental, your company is real. And with you, I may watch a movie, or I may decide that the movie is non-sensical. We may better stroll outside. Darling, let’s go out and sit somewhere and have some popcorn.” The movie can easily be left, the beloved cannot be left. And with beloved, everything is wonderful; a movie, a balcony, a parking lot or a stroll, or a restaurant, or anywhere else. This is Leela.

“With You all places are beautiful. Without You, nothing has any meaning. Everything is made beautiful by Your presence.” This is Leela.

“Nothing has any value of its own. It’s Your company, Your presence that makes everything so nice, so very nice.” This is Leela.

Are you getting it?

“So, while I watch everything around me, I cannot, for a moment, forget that all this around me is great only till the time You are with me. When You are gone, then nothing matters. And when You are there, then we can just casually play, or try and experiment with anything and everything. We can go and have a game somewhere. Will it matter if we win that game? Well, not much. Will it matter if we lose that game? Well, not much. Because the game was for our sake, we are not for the sake of the game.”

And what if in the course of the game, you start fighting with your beloved? It happens. In one particular mall, there is a bowling alley. And I once saw a couple quarreling over who has won. In the course of the game, your beloved starts getting angry. And you start beating her up and so many things can happen. Won’t it be non-sensical? The game has become so important that you are forgetting the Real One. You have forgotten that you have entered into the game so that you can be with her. You have totally forgotten it. The incidental has become central and the central is out of the picture.

It’s like a man and woman rushing to catch a train, because they want to reach their own wedding. Now, you know, you are an ambitious man, you have done MBA. And so you run so fast that you leave her behind. And you reach the venue of your wedding alone.

(Laughter)

And you are greatly happy. You have set a world record. Nobody ever reached so fast. So swift you are! People are coming to decorate you. Medallions and certificates are on their way. You have a name in the Guinness book. And you have totally forgotten that it was for your wedding that you wanted to reach. Where is the beloved? Now she doesn’t matter, the running matters, the running matters. And she is crying out from behind, “Help!” And the fellow is saying, “World record is at stake. Plus we are individuals. I will take care of my wedding; you take care of your wedding.”

Leela is to remember whom you are wedded to. Leela is to not to turn an infidel. Leela is to not to cheat in the only Real relationship that you have. The only adultery is to cheat on God, because that is your only Real relationship. All other relationships can be compromised. But you are disloyal and dishonest, only if you compromise on the Truth. That is the only infidelity.

Are you getting it?

Leela is to willing miss the train and have a wedding on the platform. “After all, why do we need to reach there to have the wedding? If you are here and if you can’t run so fast, then let’s have a wedding on the railway platform. That is far better than me reaching there alone.”

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant.
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